The Way Back
by TheMaskedCat
Summary: Sarah discovers that her dreams of the Labyrinth may not have been sent by the person she's always suspected, and why does she want Sarah to see these things anyway?
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: I've been thinking about this for a while. I do have some chapters of this already written and an idea of where it's going, however updates will be incredibly sporadic. I hadn't planned on posting this anytime soon, but I can't go back to my demons right at the moment.

Disclaimer: I do not own Labyrinth or any of it's characters. I'm just taking a break and chilling in Jim Henson's sandbox for a while.

The Way Back

Chapter One

Sarah knew she was dreaming. The twisting turns of the Labyrinth she had traversed as a young teen were a dead giveaway to that. These dreams were nothing new. They had started a mere month after that stormy night and some ill-chosen words had showed another world. Right after her return, she was so consumed with changing that she normally fell into bed at night and didn't dream at all. Sarah had thought their absence was the cost of saving her little brother from her stupid mistake.

She'd wept the morning after her dreams came back.

Now seven years later, almost eight, she had seen the Labyrinth through every season and believed she had figured out the real punishment for her actions. To see the giant maze and its inhabitants, but not be a part of it.

It had at least given her a career before she even left college.

The series of books that followed the Labyrinth's creatures was a massive best-seller on the children's list and each volume was eagerly awaited. Several of the letters she received each week laid out how fans kept reading, even after they had grown out of the series age range.

Her mother's agent had been a little unnerved the first time she had spoken to him, he was used to selling actors not writers. Still, he had come through in the end and it had worked out well for both of them. Linda had also been a little surprised when Sarah wasn't breaking down her door to join her on stage. Sarah had just smiled and told her mother than she had grown out of that dream.

There was no need to act out fairy stories after you had lived one.

Mostly it was the unstoppable urge that filled her after each dream. The need to write it down and everything else fell away. With a Bachelor's degree in English and a minor in Creative Writing, Sarah planned to leave the glittery lights of New York behind and return to Upper Nyack. As much as she loved the city, the little apartment she had found after her first book sold, her friends; Upper Nyack was home and it always fueled her imagination. Being around Toby didn't hurt either. Her little brother and her new little sister, were always ready for a new story.

She also needed to not be so close to her editor. The woman was almost rabid for Sarah to write the story of the Labyrinth's king. And not as a children's book either. Her illustrator was waiting with bated breath as well. So much so, that the girl had dropped little drawings and sketches into the galley proofs of the last two books.

Sarah laughed as she walked through the garden maze, ivy in a vivid green not occurring in her world climbed the walls around her. She hardly ever saw the Goblin King in these dreams. Only twice in fact. That didn't mean that her daydreams weren't filled with him. One of her classes had focused on mythical creatures and Sarah had become obsessed for a while. He was a Fae, there was no other creature that made sense. With that realization and the further she dug into the legends of the Fae, came the doubts that everything had been an act, a means to distract her. Then again, what would an immortal creature of fantasy want with Sarah Williams?

She stopped as she turned a corner and the hall spread open to show a large garden. Hedges formed more turns but they were short enough to see over. Short enough for Sarah to see someone standing in front of a lifesize statue of a couple. Wrapped in pure white, the figure turned and the billowing fabric showed a feminine body. Sarah shook her head. Feminine was an understatement. Whoever the woman was, she'd make any other feel like a mill pony standing next to a thorough bred.

A graceful hand beckoned her to follow and the woman moved away from the statue. Sarah stopped for a brief moment to stare at the man and woman immortalized in stone. The aquiline features of the man were frighteningly familiar but just different enough. It wasn't him, but definitely a relation. A beautiful woman held his hand, the moment of accepting the crystal he offered frozen in time. Sarah backed away quickly, her hand to her throat as she remembered being offered a crystal of her own years ago and how it had burst when she touched it.

The dream rejected and shattered. Destroyed.

She followed the figure around the next curve and found another statue and another couple immortalized in stone. She couldn't read the writing at the bottom but assumed it was their names. Sarah kept going, following the billowing white cape deeper and deeper into the garden; passing two more statues as she went.

Sarah took the last turn into the heart of the garden and stopped dead in her tracks. She recognized the sharp lines of the cruel, beautiful face of the last statue. She moved forward without thought, her body listening to commands that were not her own. She stopped in front of the large stone and stared at the man depicted. He stood alone, the crystal held to his chest instead of being offered to a woman.

"He's the one you were looking for, isn't he?"

Sarah whirled around and saw the white caped figure behind her. The woman came closer, her hood covering all but her perfect lips and chin. As she came closer, Sarah saw the faint lines of tattoos on the woman's exposed arms and legs, a twinkling jewel set in her belly button. The slit skirt and train showed her legs while the top was twisted to cover everything but left much skin showing and more of the strange markings.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Do you think you can lie to me, Sarah?" The woman laughed. "As you journeyed to my heart, yours was opened to me."

Sarah jerked back with a gasp. "You're…you're the labyrinth."

"I created it, yes. With all my heart and soul."

"You're trapped here."

"No," the lips smiled. "I hide here." She looked up at the stone likeness of her current king. "As someone else does."

"I…"

"It's alright. I know."

"You know what?"

"What you're unwilling to admit." She moved past Sarah to gaze at the statue. "I love him, as I didn't all of my kings. Jareth is much like myself and sometimes in the same situation. Of course, sometimes it is his own making, but he is still learning."

"People are always learning."

"Well said."

The woman was silent, staring at the statue as her head cocked to the side. Sarah started to fidget.

"Why did you bring me here?"

"Do you not wish to be here?"

"You've been bringing me here for years. Why?"

"Why not?" The woman answered with a shrug as she turned back to Sarah. "You have made a living telling the stories of my peoples. It has made you happy."

"But what's the purpose?"

The perfect lips smiled at her, giving no answer. Sarah started forward but the dream shattered around her.

She sat up with a gasp and looked over to the alarm clock beside her little pallet of blankets. It was her last day waking up in New York. She slammed a hand on the button to shut it off and looked around the empty room. Everything had already been packed up and put into storage until she found a place of her own. The room was a blank slate and Sarah couldn't help but think that it reflected herself. She had friends, but no one she was really close to. She'd dated in college and even a few of her mother's friends. Sarah had even tried a girl, when no one ever interested her enough to make it past the first outing. Still nothing. Her mother was here, but involved in her own life.

Linda Williams was on her way to London right now. The summer was always time for Shakespeare in the Park. She had tried to get Sarah to come along, an offer that had been rejected to get settled back at home.

Besides, Sarah was sure it was going to be a while before she was ready to sit down and talk to the woman again, after their last conversation. Feeling the stress of leaving New York, Sarah had felt that she was leaving her mother again, for who knew how long this time. And this conversation wasn't going to wait another ten or twenty years.

Why had she left them? How could she walk away and leave her husband and young daughter behind without a word for years?

She was still processing the answer.

Sarah stood up and cracked her back. She had originally thought that the little bed of blankets would be fine for one night, like camping. Her hardwood floors said she was wrong. There was only her blankets and a couple boxes of clothes, her laptop and notes left in the apartment. She had already set up to turn her keys in after her car was loaded.

Several times, her mother had tried to get Sarah to move closer to her in SoHo, but she just didn't want to leave the little studio that was close to the NYU campus and the neighborhood she already knew, even though she had the money. Her school friends were just starting out and didn't have the money to live in ritzy neighborhoods. She liked being close to them. Like the ability to get a phone call at ten at night and run out to grab pizza with them.

The Labyrinth had taught her to live, that there was life outside of fairy tales, friends. New York had taught her to survive. She went home after each experience and it was time to go home for good.

Sarah wrapped the blankets in a messy bundle and set them with the rest of her things to be taken down and walked through the apartment she loved, making sure that everything was clean and nothing had been left behind. Picking up the last of the boxes by the door, she started down the stairs and on the road back home.

Upper Nyack hadn't changed much. The same shops still thrived on the main street through town and the stop lights still made drivers curse, thinking they weren't set up right. Sarah could see the clocktower in the distance and laughed at how she used to use it as a timer for her sessions in the park. Several people waved as she passed. More, the closer she got to the old Victorian her father and step-mother still called home. It was like people never left Upper Nyack. Those that did, tended to come back. Just look at her.

The house hadn't changed since her last visit. Karen's summer flowers were bright spots of color against the white siding and the blue-floored porch she had helped paint two summers ago. The house was happy, in a way that Sarah could appreciate after her trip through the Labyrinth. Before, she had been the one breaking the peace they all sought. The months just after hadn't been easy either. Karen wasn't quick to accept the radical changes in her step-daughter. She thought there was another explosion, perhaps nuclear this time, just on the horizon. Slowly, oh so slowly, Karen had become comfortable with the new Sarah and her father was finally able to take a deep breath.

She hadn't even taken her seatbelt off yet when the front door flew open and a blonde-haired boy flew across the porch, down the stairs and over the sidewalk. Sarah laughed as she got out the car and caught Toby.

"Sarah! You're here."

"I told you I was coming."

"Come on Toby, let Sarah get out of the car first," Karen called from the porch as the youngest Williams, little Mia with her bright blonde curls ran after her big brother.

"She is out of the car," he grumbled.

"Toby, be nice." Sarah shut her door and opened the back to grab a box. "Why don't you take this and help me get my stuff in."

"Oh, man."

She ruffled his hair as Mia came around the back of the car. She was always a little shy around Sarah and they all figured it was because she was born just before Sarah finished her senior year and moved to New York.

"Hey honey." Sarah knelt down as she smiled at the little girl. "You want to help too?"

Mia nodded and Sarah handed the small girl her purse. Her other boxes were too heavy. "If you could take this in, that'd be great."

"Okay." The girl, who was always a little small for her age, carried the tote bag concentrating on not dropping it.

Mia had been born a full four weeks early and with the imbilical cord wrapped around her neck. She was healthy, the doctors all said so, but her body was weak. She had always been small and didn't have the boundless amounts of energy Sarah could remember Toby having at her age. Mia was more content to color or watch the sky then run around the yard with the dog, a golden retriever named Arthur that Robert had picked up on a whim a year after Merlin had passed away. Sarah could hear him barking from the backyard now. He didn't like to be away from the children. Toby had explained that with Merlin gone, they needed a King Arthur to watch the house.

She watched the little four year old start on the stairs carefully. The whole family was always careful with Mia, even Toby. Instead of the usual fights they would be expecting with siblings, Toby was always trying to help his little sister.

Even now, he was waiting at the top of stairs and it was obvious he wanted to take the bag from her but Karen's hand on his shoulder stopped him. Carrying her laptop bag and another box, Sarah stopped at the top of the shallow stairs to lean down to Toby.

"You're a good brother."

Her room hadn't changed much since high school. During her junior year, Karen and her dad had made the decision to move her into the larger room that had once been a nursery for Toby. Decorating the larger room had been a treat, after she got over moving into the room where she had made the mistake of calling on the Goblin King to begin with. She had spent the first week barely able to sleep at all and the next waking up for the smallest sound in the house.

She could hear Toby complaining about the pot roast that Karen had planned on for dinner from the kitchen through her open door. Another thing that changed after her run through the Labyrinth. The door was only closed when she was asleep. It was never locked anymore though.

It was in this room that she started writing. That she saw one of the goblins that had been left behind as it shoved a fresh pack of pencils off the desktop. It had taken a few weeks to discover that they were ordered to watch over Toby…and her. It had terrified her at first, making her run to check on her brother every time she caught one out of the corner of her eye. After the first year, she started to relax. She had won Toby back, fair and square. There was nothing the Goblin King or any of his diminuative subjects could do about that.

Besides, there was a certain amount of safety in knowing that you were never alone.

It was a tiny goblin, the one that seemed to live in her desk, that had alerted her during class that something was wrong toward the end of her senior year. She had burst out of the room, running the entire way to the old, beater her father had given her for her sixteenth birthday and racing home. She had found Toby sobbing, trying to tell the 911 operator that something was wrong. Mommy was on the floor and wouldn't wake up. Sarah had swooped up her little brother and the phone, able to communicate more clearly that Karen was still breathing and was a high-risk pregnancy because of her age.

She had barely stopped herself from telling the little goblin to go get help while they waited for the ambulance. Sarah shuddered, wondering what help the goblin would have gotten. Two things she had learned over the years, the goblins didn't give her their names. Names had power. And they always ran to 'Kingy' if something was wrong. But everything with their 'Kingy' had a price.

The shadow of her mythology classes crossed her mind again as she flopped back on the bed. The Persephone Rule. To not consume any foods of the other side, lest you become one of its members. She didn't know if Jareth had fed anything to Toby during the thirteen hours he had been in the Goblin King's care, eleven hours actually. But he had not appeared again since that stormy night. The first year after her run, Sarah had called upon her friends often and they had never said anything about it either. They never said anything about the fact that she knew their names. Or that she knew the King's.

After they had studied that lore in class, Sarah had been consumed by dreams of the peach Hoggle had given her and the dream that resulted. Again, no one had ever shown up. They only thing she could gather was that when she made it to the center of the Labyrinth, she had won her and Toby's freedom, the rule broken by her triumph.

She hoped so, at least.


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Note: Indeed it is for Mr. Bowie. I had this beginning saved for a while, almost a year, just not ready to put it out and get started on yet another project. But, after hearing the news, this story was all that was on my mind. I found a VHS of Labyrinth at a garage sale when I was six years old…and I wore the tape out. I've been riding the Bowie Fantrain Express ever since. The old stuff, the new stuff, I love it all. That's probably why I can appreciate almost any genre of music. The first little story that I wrote when I was a kid was for Labyrinth fanfiction, before I even knew what fanfiction was.

I've seen fics call Sarah's step-mother both Karen and Irene, most of the ones that I've read have called her Karen. I finally went back a couple years ago and looked at the character names, I never noticed that they named her at all, but it is credited as Irene. You are correct, but I just can't bring myself to change now. I'm sorry.

Disclaimer: I do not own Labyrinth or any of its characters. I'm just taking a break and chilling in Jim Henson's sandbox for a while.

The Way Back

Chapter Two

Jareth eyed the glittering mass that swirled and turned in front of him in the gardens of Avalon. His uncle's isle was the main home of the Fae and the tame beauty they created reflected his uncle's tastes. The crystal castle that provided backdrop for the party shined in the lights from the small fires set around the grounds. Lovers slipped away into the shadows or under the weeping willows that surrounded them.

He had sat out the celebration of the Spring Equinox so far. He had sat out all of the balls he had been forced to attend for the last few years actually. He knew what he was really invited for. Oberon had decided it was time for the Ruler of the Labyrinth to take a bride, to get an heir to train. Didn't help that his uncle had been given the prophecy about Jareth finding a mate after the defeating of his maze. He didn't appear to care that Jareth had been rejected. Now, since she had refused, he was supposed to pick from the glittering hoard around him.

The prophecy never stated a who.

He had more important things to worry about. Like the Labyrinth outgrowing her normal borders. The vast outer wall that reigned in the rest of the maze had not changed since the Labyrinth's inception. And she wasn't talking to him anymore. That absence, more than anything, bothered him. The Labyrinth had always spoken to him, came when he called, since the day that his father had brought him to visit the wild lands as a child.

He couldn't bring that up as an excuse. Oberon wasn't the biggest fan of the large maze to begin with, probably because she refused to bow to him. He could never make his uncle understand, the Labyrinth bowed to no one. Any problem that Jareth had had during his kingship was met with the same answer…

"Taking care of that place is your job. Making sure that there is someone to rule it after you is mine."

Oberon may be the High King of the Fae, but Au Dagda had backed the decision to put his favored grandchild on the throne of Dreams and Nightmares. All came from the Labyrinth's depths. Which was another reason the crown was so coveted. Whether the dreamer chose to follow what they had been shown was part of their own free-will.

He wasn't unaware of why he was so pursued. The Labyrinth was the closet kingdom on this side of the mists to the humans. It was the first line of defense should man decide to cross the lines again and as such it carried a certain authority and power. Not they were really believed in anymore. There were pockets of believers but to most, it was just fairy stories. Good for entertainment, but not mired in the reality of man's journey to its current state.

Except for Sarah.

She had been a true believer. Believed even more now. His goblins reported weekly on what transpired in the Williams' home, as well as Sarah's apartment when she had moved to the city. It was hard for him to spy on her there, so much iron. It was no surprise to him that she had chosen to return to her childhood home. After her run and his defeat, Sarah would have a problem with all that iron as well. Dreamers needed space to breathe and live.

Jareth was beyond bored as he lounged against the trunk of a tall oak. Apathy oozed from the Fae that would rather have been locked up in the center of his maze, tending to his current problem. His hand ached to pull a crystal, he knew that Sarah was coming home this weekend. To stay. Toby was always willing to talk about his sister, how worried he was when she was away.

Sisters. The boy was also worried about Mia, the youngest of the Williams clan. Jareth didn't have the heart to tell Toby that little Mia wouldn't survive the world of man for very long. Her body was weak and their world carried too much danger in the air alone. Jareth had toyed with the idea of convincing Toby to wish his sister away, Fae healers and the air not polluted by man's machines stood a better chance of getting the girl to adulthood than any doctor they would find in the human world.

His Grandfather and the Labyrinth herself had swiftly struck that idea down. It wasn't his job to rescue, it was his duty to collect the unwanted and give them a home. No one could look at little Mia's family and say that the girl was unwanted. She was doted upon, by everyone.

The Labyrinth had warned him that it was better to have a short life basking in the love of her family than a long one amongst strangers. Mia was old enough to remember her family and wouldn't be grateful for the perceived rescue. Besides, how could he think to step in the way of a human's fate? When Fae reached maturity, they took a vow to not interfere with the natural order of the universe, and death was just as sacred as life. It was one thing to save a life in front of you, another to circumvent the universe to steal a life from Death's hands.

His stormy gaze was returned to the throng in front of him. There was no one that he didn't know here. Few of the women that he hadn't already tasted. Virginity wasn't highly valued among the Fae because of their long lives. Marriages were normally no more than contracts on a time limit. No one wanted to be tied to one being for the rest of eternity. And sometimes, that's exactly what their live-span felt like. The Rulers of the Labyrinth and the Forgotten Sea seemed to be a little different than most. Their marriages were known to last forever, even if they occasionally invited another in to play. Shame that his was going to break that. If he did chose from one of Fae, there would be a time limit that he had to put up with them.

Then again, if you spoke to most of the Seelie Court, Jareth should never have been placed on the Labyrinth's throne to begin with. The throne that had once belonged to Oberon's youngest brother, Ragnok. They didn't know it wasn't Oberon's decision. Wasn't even Au Dagda's, the Father of the Fae, in the end. The Labyrinth chose her own ruler. It was a secret kept fiercely by her kings. Imagine his surprise when he had discovered that the Father of all the Fae hadn't known how the Labyrinth originated. Au Dagda had explained that it already existed when he first ventured through the mists to this land. Jareth had been shocked as only a child of a few decades, he knew the story of the Labyrinth's creation and its creator.

She had chosen him after his uncle's heart had turned dark and merciless. Jareth didn't know then that she had planned and executed his uncle's very downfall. The Labyrinth stood as sentinel between man and Fae, but it also nurtured the dreams and nightmares of mankind. She welcomed the unwanted of man and gave them homes.

It couldn't be ruled by a king that hated humans.

Not that Jareth could blame his Uncle. Ragnok had once been a just king, loved by his people and the Labyrinth herself. When the last war between man and Fae hit a fever pitch, when his people had decided to surrender the Earth to humans and retreat into the mists forever, Ragnok had lost his wife and son. The incident turned him bitter and ugly to all humans.

Jareth had lost his own mother in those last battles and sought refuge from his grief in his beloved Labyrinth. It was there that he found the true heart of the great maze and her. Because he had needed to.

For a while, Jareth was the same. He had found solace, and he loved the Labyrinth, always finding a way to explore its many twists and turns, the many worlds contained within itself. The many creatures it nurtured and the endless habitats that it housed. From the darkest forests, to the barren desert at it's gate. Everyone could find a home in the Labyrinth lands. Just as its creator had intended when she poured her heart and soul into the land itself untold millennia ago.

The great gates at the entrance to the garden burst open and the party ground to a halt. Everyone hurried to move to the side as the large man dressed in a leather kilt and weathered cloak walked easily through the crowd as if he owned everything he saw. Jareth supposed that he did. Au Dagda, the Druid of the Gods, all lines of Fae began and ended with him. Behind him walked the little red head that had been his companion for centuries. Jareth wondered, in idle moments, where he had picked up the beautiful human and how he kept her alive. Human, Kiera was surely, even though she had never carried a child of Au Dagda, nor added to his bloodlines. Still, she stayed alive, sharing his life. His last child had been Jareth's mother, the child of his previous companion.

Perhaps that was why Jareth was favored by the ancient. Au Dagda was not often found in the civil and enlightened court of his son, Oberon. He preferred the cruel wildness and pleasures of Tara. He had once told Jareth his home was more real than Oberon's could ever hope of being. Instead of politics and back biting, when someone had a problem in Tara, the entire Hill turned out to see the battle taken straight to the accused.

Some called it barbaric, Au Dagda called it honest.

"Father," Oberon bowed lowed, as everyone else had already hit the floor. "We were not expecting to see you."

"I didn't think ye were."

It was no secret that Oberon and Au Dagda did not see eye to eye on several subjects and were content to leave each other in peace.

The ancient looked around his son to where Jareth was kneeling on the floor.

"What are ye doing boy? Do ye believe the wild and powerful land that ye rule over will accept one of these tame, pampered blossoms?"

Jareth raised his head, showing the lifeless gaze that taken over his eyes. "Life in the castle itself is rather tame."

Au Dagda threw his head back, roaring laughter to the sky. "Take some o' these pampered pets to visit and see how tame your home is then." He turned serious and glared at the young king. "Your people have already spoken, boy. When one befriends those walking the Labyrinth, they have found their queen."

"Leave us," Oberon commanded the throng and held up a hand, stopping the two from speaking until they were alone.

Jareth burst from the floor as soon as the castle doors closed behind the last. "She rejected me. Have you forgotten?"

"And didn't ye say yourself that ye had played your hand too soon?" Au Dagda crossed his arms over his large chest. "I expected better of ye boy. Ye let her get so far in your little game. Your rejection is your fault and it's not for your people to suffer for it."

"They would not," Oberon protested. "Every woman that we have selected is well versed in the skills needed to run a kingdom and castle."

"Ach, too civilized for me boy. Too peaceful an arrangement for the Labyrinth. You can hide a lot of evil under all your pretty speeches and fabric." He turned back to Jareth with fire in his eyes. "Your land is a force of nature and will accept nothing less from those that rule its inhabitants."

"You expect me to throw myself at her feet and grovel?"

Au Dagda grabbed the young king and hauled him close. "I expect ye to show her who's king, me boy." He growled. "Capture that little witch and bring her into the heart of your maze. Make her bow before your throne and let that wild storm fuel your people.

"Ye rule the wilds and ye let that elemental soul get away and take the prize with her. You canna tame a storm with pretty words and a soft touch. Ye must show it ye are its equal. That ye will not bow before its might. That ye alone can keep that force turning."

"Prize?" Oberon turned to Jareth. "You fed the boy?"

The younger king turned away. "It is not in my nature to deny food to a hungry child."

"Then you must get it back. A changeling cannot live in the world a man forever. It will stifle and suffocate him until he takes his own life."

"Even my own son agrees with me. Will wonders never cease."

"She won the challenge, Father."

"She did no such thing." Au Dagda stood tall. "She forfeited when she herself got hungry. Didn't she, boy?"

"You fed her too?" Oberon didn't wait for the answer that wasn't coming. "Then she should never have left. How did the Labyrinth allow her passage back to the world of man?"

"Seems the Labyrinth decided to allow the girl the illusion of winning." Kiera spoke softly from behind her companion.

The men turned to look at her in shock.

Jareth did not recall Kiera speaking very often and kept his own voice low. Human or not, Au Dagda would not tolerate any disrespect for the woman that traveled with him. "She said that Sarah was too young."

"Ach, what a load of bullshit. If she's old enough to respond, she's old enough to keep." He eyed the red head behind him, who looked no older than Sarah did when she ran the Labyrinth. "Isn't that right?"

Kiera raised an eyebrow. "You must remember that humans mature differently than they did when you found me. I was unaware of the particulars, but I still knew what was expected of me. Sarah did not." She looked at Jareth. "You scared her."

"Eager enough though, weren't ye lass?" He snorted at her nod. "More lies the world of man feeds itself. They live longer now and think they have forever to do it. Preferred when they knew life was precious and surrendered more to their instincts."

Oberon sniffed. "Is that not what your Tara is there for?"

"Aye, lad. And don't forget there was once a time that ye didn't lie to yourself either."

"I don't lie to myself now."

"Keep telling yourself that. Ye sit in this gilded cage and play your own games. Ye think I don't know what ye and your queen are up to? Surrender more to your own needs than ye be willing to admit." He waved to the garden around them. "It's all just smoke and mirrors. Soft furs and breakable fabrics over sharp blades and vicious hearts."

"Regardless." The woman put a hand on her companion's arm. "She is old enough now. Even by the laws of the modern world. More to the point, she had also lived. She has left the safety of her home, seen how the world truly is and come back."

"Give up the manipulations. A stubborn human doesn't care what is more beneficial. Now is the time to battle, boy. Show her what she misses and what she canna get in the human world. It don't cater to the dreamer. The world of man will break her down, suck her dry and leave her to rot."


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Note: Short chapter this week so I'm posting chapter four with it.

Okay, not even two weeks after Bowie's death and Tri-Star announces that it's going to gut and remake Labyrinth. Bad timing, such bad timing.

Disclaimer: I do not own Labyrinth or any of its characters. I'm just taking a break and chilling in Jim Henson's sandbox for a little while.

 **PART ONE OF A TWO PART POST**

The Way Back

Chapter Three

Au Dagda found Kiera on a nearby rise to the Hill, staring at the stars. He took a moment to stare at his companion of the last seven hundred years. Her body was just as beautiful as the first time he had seen her. Red hair spilled down her back, cascading over the silver gown that was a replica of the one she had been married in centuries ago. Silver bells still quietly murmured from her hair. A demon had found her during the kingdom's celebration for their prince's marriage and welcoming for their new princess.

A human girl, offered to him by a demon of all things. A demon that pitied the fate that awaited her. A raging fire burned in her soul, a fire that would only be smothered under the stone fist of her new husband and family. He'd stolen that fire at dawn and brought it back to his beloved Tara to burn wild and free.

Now, after seven centuries, it was burning out. No fire could rage forever. Even knowing that didn't lessen the ache in his heart.

"You come here more an more lass."

She turned to grace him with a smile, one that was much dimmer than it used to be.

"It's quiet here. Peaceful."

"I've not known you to value the quiet."

"It has its place and time."

He laid a heavy hand on her shoulder and the girl stepped back into his arms, still staring at the stars above them.

"I'm so tired," she admitted quietly. "All the time it seems."

"I know, lass. I know." He laid his head on hers. "Mayhap, I'll journey with you."

"No. You still burn to see the next piece of the play. What's over the next hill."

"True. Ye know me well." He tightened his arms around her, trying to convince her to make another choice. "It will be lonely without ye lass."

"As it was before you met me." She turned to eye him. "I do not think you will have to wait long at all, for a new companion."

"They'll not be ye."

"There's something here." She touched her heart. "Some excitement building."

He pulled away, tugging the hand he held. "Come, lass. Show me what that demon taught ye one more time."

She gave him a watery smile and followed him to the grass. "No, what you taught me."

As dawn's first rays touched the sky, the revelers of Tara stopped and parted to allow the figure passage to the fire. Dressed in the long cloak of his status as Druid of the Gods, Au Dagda carried the empty form of his companion, confidante and lover. The one who had followed where he led for centuries. Most had never seen the Father of the Fae without her in their lifetime. Others still remembered her predecessor, and even older thought of the one before her. Each had grown weary of the world at some time, choosing to leave him and seek the mystery of the sky and life's next journey.

The minstrels quieted, starting a soft lament that mirrored the druid's chanting. He laid a soft kiss on the already chilled skin of her forehead and the inhabitants of Tara kneeled.

"May you burn again lass, wild and free and all the brighter, in the next life."

Au Dagda released her body to the ever burning flames of Tara. All stood back as the fire roared, reaching further and further into the sky. Within the flames they saw her form and heard her laugh once more as she was released and sought the lightening sky.

He felt a presence and turned. Just over the sacred boundary that shielded his Tara from the world of man and darker things that preyed upon mortals, stood the same demon that had brought her to his attention all those years ago. His perfect pale face framed by black hair was turned to the flames and released the petals of the rose he had held in his black tipped fingers. The wind carried them and the feathers from the demon's wings to join the fires as the demon bowed to Au Dagda before turning away.

"Fare thee well, lass." He whispered to the sky. "Fare thee well."


	4. Chapter 4

Author's Note: Hope this makes up for short chapter 3.

Disclaimer: I do not Labyrinth or any of it's characters. I'm just taking a break and playing in Jim Henson's sandbox for a little while.

 **PART TWO OF A TWO PART POST**

The Way Back

Chapter Four

Sarah had been awake for hours when the rest of the house started to stir. Memories of her dream of the Labyrinth and the garden of statues had haunted her until sleep was impossible. It was always like this. Once something had been shown to her, she couldn't rest until she had gotten at least the jest of what she had seen on paper.

She still wasn't sure how the garden of statues and finding out the Labyrinth was actually a person fit into her next tale, but it did somehow. Maybe her editor was right. Maybe she should start looking to the other inhabitants of the Labyrinth and more adult stories now. Lord knew her dreams had turned more adult during college, and mostly centered around the king she had met long ago. She had pushed past those, calling them harmless fantasy and dug into the more child-like creatures she saw. Telling their stories instead of concentrating on the Fae she was sometimes shown.

A knock on her door pulled Sarah from the old desk that still took up a corner of the room.

Mia's head popped in the door but didn't open it all the way.

"Hey, Mia." Sarah stood with a smile.

"Are you coming down for breakfast? Mommy wasn't sure if you were working or not."

"Sure, I'm coming." Sarah stood and followed the child down the stairs, watching to make sure Mia didn't trip.

"What are your plans for today?" Karen asked as she brought a bowl of fresh fruit to the table and took her seat. "Are you working on your next book yet?"

"Not quite. The idea's there but it's not complete yet. I was thinking about spending today looking for my own place."

Robert let the edge of his paper drop to look at his oldest child. "There's no rush for you to leave Sarah. You just got here."

"I know, but I've gotten used to having my own space."

The discussion was stopped by the doorbell. Karen stood to answer it as her father grumbled about who would come by this early in the morning.

"Sarah. It's for you."

"Me?" Sarah stood and dropped her napkin on the table. "Who even knows I'm here yet?"

She stopped at seeing a dark haired girl with bright blue streaks shot through it in the doorway. Even early in the morning she was fully dressed in designer jeans, a sharp white top with flutter sleeves and dark make-up that drew attention to her topaz colored eyes that could still be seen through her sunglasses. Sometimes, Sarah swore they were gold.

"Karen, this is my illiustrator."

The girl held out her hand with a bright smile. "Abby Marrone. It's nice to finally meet you."

"You too. What brings you to Upper Nyack?"

"What else?" She waved to Sarah. "My writer is here."

"We can work from different cities," Sarah grumbled.

"Sarah," Abby pulled the sunglasses from her face. "How many times did we have to go over the last set of drawings for the Tale of the Gnome?"

"Five million it feels like."

"Exactly. Do you honestly think this is going to work commuting to the city every day or even over the phone with couriers passing things back and forth?"

"Abby, why don't you come in?" Karen pulled Sarah back from the door so that the woman could come inside. "Have you had breakfast yet?"

"I grabbed coffee on the way out of the hotel."

Karen shuddered. "Come, we've got plenty."

"She's not at all like a wicked step-mother Sarah," she said in a whisper meant to carry.

"Abby!"

Both Karen and Abby giggled at Sarah's raging blush.

Robert dropped his paper when they came into the dining room.

"Hello. Sorry to bother you all so early in the morning." Abby smiled at the room. "I just wanted to be sure that I caught Sarah before she did, whatever she plans on doing today."

"Daddy, this is Abby Marrone. She's my illustrator for the Labyrinth series."

"It's nice to meet you."

"You too. Please, sit."

"Thanks." She smiled as Karen set a plate in front of her and turned to the boy on her left. "I bet you're Toby."

"Sarah told you about me?"

"Well, of course she did." Abby looked down the table to the little girl hiding against her father. "Hey there cutie."

"This is Mia. She's a little shy." Karen explained.

"That's alright. You just don't waste time on people until you're sure that they're worth dealing with." Abby nodded enthusiastically. "Good plan."

The little girl giggled and Abby looked back to Sarah.

"You're going to live in Upper Nyack," Sarah started after diving into her French toast again.

"Sure, why not?"

Sarah eyed her friend's wardrobe.

"What? I can do it. I can do anything."

The two laughed at the old joke.

"Besides, I'm looking forward to seeing where you get your inspiration from. I can really dig into what you're describing now."

"I give it a week before you're running back to the city."

"You're on." Abby took a bite from her plate. "Oh, this is great."

"Thank you."

"So, what are we doing today?" Her voice dropped as she leaned over to Sarah. "Is there anything to do here?"

Karen had left to take Toby to school and drop Mia off at Pre-K while Robert had headed to work. In the safety of her room, Sarah turned on Abby as she looked around the space.

"Why are you really here?"

"Sarah, you haven't talked to me about creating a character in weeks. That's not usual. Then you decide to exile yourself to the middle of nowhere? What's going on?"

She pushed the papers around on her desk, not wanting to talk about it. Not wanting to say it out loud. But Abby had been there this entire ride, just as excited about the series as Sarah was. "I don't know where I'm going anymore. I've got an idea, but no idea where to go with it."

"You've hit the wall."

Sarah sighed and hung her head. "Yeah."

"That's not a problem. You just need to take a new direction, get a new perspective."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I've got an idea. One I've saving in my back pocket for just this occasion."

"You sound like you knew I was going to hit a burn out."

"Sarah, no writer can keep going at the pace you were. You were churning out a book every couple months. I could barely keep up with you. You can't keep that up forever. Every once in a while, the brain needs to rest, to regroup. But, you still have to keep people drawn in. What do record companies do when they've exhausted an artist?"

"I don't know."

"They churn out a greatest hits album."

"You think, what, I need to do some kind of compendium? Take all the stories that I've got so far and release them together?"

"Not exactly, I'm sure the publishing house has already thought of that. Why don't you do like an encyclopedia of the creatures that live in the Labyrinth? Not stories centered around them, just a page blurb of where they live, what they do, their likes and dislikes. Then on the right page, we'll have an illustration of them." She pointed to Sarah's head. "You've got more in there than the main characters we've seen so far. How often have you told me to add in some brightly colored worm or a bird, or some fluffy thing in the background? It will give you a break from having to churn out stories, but seeing all the different creatures just might kickstart the old noggin."

"You've got something else in that twisted little brain of yours too."

"At the same time, we'll release an art book. Not the little illustrations like the series has had, or a single character like you would need for the encyclopedia, but detailed drawings of a place, or an event."

"You've been thinking about this for a while."

"I've been thinking about this since Victoria introduced us. Sarah, I love what your brain churns out and I love drawing your creatures. But I've always wanted to do more. Not the simple, bright illustrations of a children's book, but detailed, intricate drawings of what you've created. I've already got a couple of sketches."

Sarah gave her a look.

"Aright, books. I've got a couple of sketch books filled with ideas."

"Alright. We'll give it a shot." Sarah straightened the papers on her desk and pulled open a drawer to drop them in. "It can't waste any more time than staring at blank pages is."

"Yes!" Abby jumped and punched her fist in the air. "I'm going to grab my stuff from the hotel. You get started making a list the creatures you've already introduced. I've got a couple of the books from mythology class with me. We'll go through them too. I'll be back before you know it." She stopped at the door. "This is going to be great. It'll be just what you need to focus again. You'll see."


End file.
